By Tom Braithwaite in Paris
France is set to endorse a civil nuclear agreement with Libya in a further sign that western countries are eager to do business with the former pariah state in previously taboo sectors.
Patrick Ollier, president of the economic affairs committee at the French National Assembly, on Tuesday said an outline agreement had already been reached between the two countries which “should be signed in the next two weeks”.
Other officials said the CEA, the French atomic energy commission, would carry out nuclear research in co-operation with Libyan scientists, in part as a reward for Colonel Muammer Gadaffi’s renunciation of weapons of mass destruction and Tripoli’s agreement to pay compensation to the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie aircraft bombing.
“President Gadaffi brought all that was necessary for France and Europe to [welcome him into] the community of nations,” said Mr Ollier, who is the partner of Michèle Alliot-Marie, the French defence minister.
“The Libyans are trying to open all their markets to the outside world but we are in competition with the Spanish, the Italians, the British and even, in oil, the Americans. Total (the French oil group) tried, but most of the [oil] contracts were taken by the Americans and the British.”
Col Gadaffi asked for renewed scientific links between the countries – including in nuclear technology – during President Jacques Chirac’s visit to Tripoli in November 2004. The agreement will be conditional on Libya’s continued co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Libya agreed to renounce its nuclear weapons programme in December 2003 but the deal struck with western powers allowed for a continuation of a civilian programme for the production of energy.
Mark Fitzpatrick, non-proliferation expert at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that, unlike Iran’s, a Libyan civilian programme would not cause western concern. Tripoli will be buying fuel from abroad, rather than enriching uranium at home. Nuclear facilities, including the existing research reactor at Tajurah, east of Tripoli, will be monitored by the IAEA.
The French nuclear sales pitch in Libya is not on the same scale as in India or China, where Areva, the state-controlled nuclear group, is hoping to win contracts to design and build reactors.
Areva said it was not involved in the current negotiations but would be interested in doing business with Libya. The company is already bidding for uranium that is being sold under IAEA supervision after the dismantling of Libya’s weapons programme.
The energy sector has so far seen the most activity of foreign companies after Italy’s Eni opened a natural gas pipeline as part of a venture with Libya’s National Oil Co in 2004. In January, Finmeccanica, the Italian defence group, signed an €80m contract to supply 10 helicopters to Libya, the first significant deal between the country and a western defence group.
France is looking to supplement the “economic diplomacy” managed by Mr Ollier with humanitarian diplomacy in the case of a group of children infected with HIV/Aids at a Libyan hospital.
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were jailed and originally sentenced to death for allegedly infecting the children, harming efforts to rebuild ties between Libya and the west. France is now offering to treat some of the children in an effort to secure the freedom of the medical personnel while allowing Col Gadaffi to save face.
Mr Ollier said the treatment of the detainees was “not a problem of human rights”.
